US flight landed in Amritsar, why not Delhi? AAP alleges bid to defame Punjab

Punjab AAP president and cabinet minister Aman Arora alleges “step-motherly treatment” and “conspiracy” against state; Congress MP terms shackling of illegal immigrants on board US military aircraft “shameful and unacceptable”.

Accusing the Centre of meting out step-motherly treatment to Punjab, the ruling Aam Aadmi Party has asked why the US aircraft that brought back 104 illegal Indian immigrants landed in Amritsar and not Delhi.

One of the illegal immigrants from Punjab who was deported from the US sits in a police vehicle as they leave the airport in Amritsar on Wednesday. (Reuters)

Congress MP Gurjeet Singh Aujla also raised the same question and slammed the Centre for not protesting the deportation of its citizens.

The US military plane landed at the Shri Guru Ramdas Ji International Airport in Amritsar at 1.55 pm on Wednesday. Of those deported, 33 each are from Haryana and Gujarat, 30 from Punjab, three each from Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, and two from Chandigarh.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Punjab AAP president and cabinet minister Aman Arora accused the Centre of meting out “step-motherly” treatment to Punjab on every issue.

“Deportees were from across the country. (Deportees) from other states were more than those from Punjab... (but) it (plane) landed in Amritsar. I am not objecting to them coming here but by leaving the national capital and landing it (plane) in Amritsar... there is substance in what you are saying,” he said when asked if there was a conspiracy to defame Punjab by landing the plane in Amritsar.

Amritsar MP Aujla echoed similar sentiments on Thursday.

“Shameful & unacceptable! The Modi govt allowed Indian immigrants to be deported in shackles on a foreign military aircraft. Why no protest? Why not a commercial flight? Why didn’t the plane land in Delhi? This is an insult to our people & our sovereignty. The govt must answer,” Aujla said in a post on X.

Of the 30 illegal immigrants hailing from Punjab, six are from Kapurthala, five from Amritsar, four each from Patiala and Jalandhar, two each from Hoshiarpur, Ludhiana, SBS Nagar, and one each from Gurdaspur, Tarn Taran, Sangrur, SAS Nagar and Fatehgarh Sahib.

The 104 immigrants were the first such batch of Indians to be deported by the Trump administration as part of a crackdown against illegal immigrants.

The US action came just days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington to hold wide-ranging talks with President Donald Trump.